DCSF reports reveal care drought for disabled children

Most families with disabled children are not accessing care and family support services in the thirty English areas that have made a priority of improving provision for the group, Every Disabled Child Matters has said.

Over 70% said they had received no care and support services in the past 12 months, while one-third said they had received “little” or “none” of the care and support they required.

Social work support

The services include social work support, home adaptations, emotional support, childcare and play provision, and short breaks. Expanding short break provision is a key priority for the DCSF’s Aiming High for Disabled Children programme, and it has provided councils with £370m from 2008-11 for this purpose.

Christine Lenehan, director of the Council for Disabled Children and EDCM board member, said it was “concerned” by the figures, and said she would “hope to see real improvement over the next year”.

The DCSF is measuring parental satisfaction with services as part of a new performance indicator on disabled children’s services.

Priority given to disabled children’s services

The thirty areas surveyed this year were those where local authorities and their partners have selected the performance indicator for their local area agreements, which define local priorities for improvement.

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